Alphabet Soup: Nights can be cold
by Windfighter
Summary: Emil falls down a hole while he and Lalli tries to catch up with the others. The landing was a little harder than he thought.


One more for the Alphabet Soup Challenge and we're back to torturing Emil! woo!

 **Warnings:** Blood, gross wounds, broken bones, close call with death, a tent, horrible ending.

I seriously need to figure out how to make endings for stories.

* * *

"Some **morons** put a hole here!"

Emil's heart was pounding like crazy. He sat up, tried to get his bearings. There was a slight pounding in his head, but he shook it away.

"Don't go anywhere without me. Please?"

Lalli didn't answer and Emil started gathering everything. He talked while he worked, pulled himself up to his feet. He gritted his teeth as as pain shot up from his leg and his back. He must have landed worse than he thought. He said something to Lalli again, then started the climb up. Would Lalli be there when he got up? He hoped so, but wouldn't be surprised if Lalli had gone off on his own. That's what he did.

Climbing was hard. The pain in his back made it hard to breathe and he got winded before he had gotten even half-way up. On top of that the pain in his leg somewhat hindered his attempts to climb and he had to take it slow. He really hoped Lalli would be there when he got up. He closed his eyes against the pain as he pulled himself over the edge, breathing heavily as he did so.

"Alright... we can... continue on now."

Lalli stared at him, didn't offer him a hand, and Emil pulled himself up. He pulled a hand through his hair, tried to take a deep breath and calm himself.

"That was _really..._ "

Lalli's fingers against Emil's lips and Emil froze, stared at the scout. Lalli stared back, then placed a hand against Emil's back, pushed him forward and then took the lead. Emil tried to keep up, but it was getting harder, his body was getting more painful for each step.

KRA~KOMMM!

Emil flinched, froze. Lalli grabbed his arm, started running and Emil ran with him, ran, couldn't run. He slipped out of Lalli's grip, almost stumbled, but tried to start running again. He couldn't breathe, his leg felt like it was on fire, like there was a knife in it and Lalli turned around, his eyes widened when they fell on Emil. He ran back, his eyes searching the street as he wrapped an arm around Emil's waist. Emil shook his head, but Lalli pulled at him, almost dragged him. Both of them listened, tried to hear if the thing was coming after them, and then Lalli stopped, shoved Emil through a crack in the wall and quickly came in after him. Lalli's hand covered Emil's mouth and Emil stared at Lalli, his eyes wide.

One minute, two minutes. The adrenaline was starting to leave Emil's body again and the pain was making itself reminded. He leaned his head back against the wall, closed his eyes and didn't take any deep breaths. He couldn't. He opened his eyes again and glanced at Lalli, who was looking unusually insecure. His back felt wet and his leg felt even wetter and he dared to glance at it.

He shouldn't have.

His former white pants were turning red and a piece of rusty metal was sticking out of his leg and Emil had to turn away again. His stomach twisted itself into a knot and lunch was about to come back up again. Lalli grabbed his shoulder, forced him to lean forward and Emil closed his eyes so he didn't have to look at the blood. Then his back was pressed against the wall again, something was pulling at his coat, his belt, his equipment. Thin hands on his leg, something was tied around his thigh, hard. Emil opened his eyes again, glanced at Lalli. Lalli glanced at him, looked through the crack, and then pulled off Emil's coat, pulled up his shirt. Lalli's hands on Emil's back, pressing, and Emil almost screamed but Lalli's hand covered his mouth again.

"Shh."

Emil nodded. Lalli let go of his mouth again and Emil pressed both of his over it when Lalli started pressing at his back again. He felt bone sliding against bone and then Lalli let his shirt fall down again, offered him his coat. Emil tried to get air back into his lungs, tried to get his body to forget the pain, tried to not let his eyes fill with tears, but he couldn't. After a minute his hands fell into his lap and he leaned against the wall again.

"Stay", Lalli whispered.

Emil's hand grabbed Lalli's arm, he shook his head.

"Don't go. They're..."

Lalli's finger against Emil's lips again. Emil blushed.

"Shh."

Emil wanted to protest, but Lalli was gone before he could open his mouth again. Emil pulled the coat over his legs, flinched when it got stuck to the piece of metal and pulled at his leg. He bit down on his hand to stop himself from screaming, then leaned back against the moist wall behind him. Coldness made its way through his shirt, lessened the pain in his back. He closed his eyes, shivered and tried to take quiet breaths. Rule number one: Stand Still and Stay Silent.

Time passed. Emil didn't now how much, but the shadows were growing longer, darker. The sun was setting, had set, and Emil was getting colder. He pulled the coat around himself, tried to curl up to keep his bodyheat, but he couldn't move his leg, it hurt to bend his back. He wanted to light a fire, but the light might lure a troll there. He pulled his bag closer, studied the mark Reynir had drawn on it, pulled out the food Mikkel had given him. He drank some of it, put it back in the bag again. Things were crawling outside, searching. Had Lalli made it back to the others? Was he safe? Emil leaned back and looked at the ceiling. His body shivered harder and harder, he was getting tired, he wanted to sleep, but he couldn't.

Slowly it got hotter again. He opened his coat, closed his eyes and let his body relax. He would just rest in the sun for a moment, then he'd go after the others. Midnight sun. He had never experienced it before. It heated him just as well as the regular sun. His body slid to the ground, made a soft thud as it landed. Outside creatures stopped in their tracks, looked at each other, tried to figure out where the sound came from. A hooded person sneaking through them, trying to thin out their numbers. A wider person following when the coast was clear, gripping a bag tightly in one hand and wielding a crowbar in the other. They stopped by the crack, the scout stopping outside, the medic forcing his way inside.

"He is very cold."

Emil couldn't open his eyes. Something pulled at his leg but Emil barely felt the pain.

"Hypothermia", the voice said.

Emil's coat was closed again and Emil wanted to protest but couldn't.

"This will hurt."

Thin hands pressed his leg against the ground. Something was ripped out of his flesh and all senses came back to Emil. He screamed, sat up, fell back down again and grabbed his hands around his leg. His grip was weak and easily forced to let go.

"It'll be alright, Emil."

Creatures were coming again. The small room suddenly lit up by a fire just outside the crack. Screeches as the creatures ran into it, ran away from it, regrouped.

"Danger", Lalli said.

"I know", Mikkel answered. "I will soon be done."

Everything was calm again and Emil slipped back to sleep, didn't feel the medic wrap his leg up, didn't feel him wrap an extra coat around his body. He didn't feel Mikkel lift him from the ground and didn't see him nod to Lalli to lead the way back. Emil couldn't feel anything.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"How is he?"

Sigrun's voice. Emil opened his eyes, closed them again.

"Weak."

Mikkel's voice. Emil tried turning his head, but his muscles wouldn't obey him. He was held against something warm, something soft. Something else was pressing against his back, not as warm as the other thing but it was still heating him up.

"But he'll live, won't he?"

"I would like to think so."

The thing pressing against his back pressed harder and a tiny yelp escaped Emil's mouth as it pressed against the broken ribs.

"Emil? Are you awake?"

Emil shook his head in answer to Mikkel's question.

"Don't worry, we are not going to move just yet. Take it easy for now."

The warm, soft thing moved and Emil started shivering as it left him. He was vaguely aware of his lack of clothes but didn't question it. He listened as Mikkel moved around, didn't protest when Mikkel's hands changed his position so he lay halfway over the thing that had been pressing against his back. Thin arms wrapped around him and his head rested on Lalli's chest, he listened to Lalli's heartbeat. The blanket was wrapped closer around them and Mikkel left the tent.

"Me and farm-boy are ready to leave already."

"We should not try to move him for another couple of hours."

"We're sitting ducks here, we have to get going."

"Sigrun, he can't just 'get going'. His leg is a mess and he just had a close call with death. He needs another few hours before he starts moving around."

"We're going to miss the boat."

"We will not miss the boat."

Emil pressed closer against Lalli, his body shivered and his brain was slowly starting to register the pain again. Lalli's hands held him, but the Finn didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry", Emil whispered after a while.

His brain was clearer now, but he didn't open his eyes, he didn't want to know just yet. Lalli tensed up, but didn't answer.

"I'm sorry this happened. So close after..."

Lalli's body shook, the arms hugged Emil tighter.

"I'm sorry..."

"Sleep", Lalli whispered.

Emil opened his eyes, glanced at Lalli's face. Lalli had his eyes pressed shut, but he could see tears overflowing them. He didn't say anything, closed his eyes again. He was tired, but he was starting to get movement back into his body. He listened to Lalli's breathing, to Mikkel, Reynir and Sigrun talking, to Kitty meowing. He tried to control his shivering, his breathing, but his body wouldn't obey him so he decided to trust his body. His back was hurting, his leg was getting more and more painful with every passing second.

"I'm gonna make you miss the boat", he whispered when he heard Sigrun come into the tent.

"Mikkel assures me we're gonna make it, pretty boy. Depends on how used you are to running one-legged."

"Sigrun, try not to scare him. Emil, are you feeling better?"

Mikkel carefully helped Emil away from Lalli's grip, helped him sit up. His body was still shivering, but not as violently, and Mikkel put a coat over Emil's shoulders.

"I think so..." Emil answered.

He pulled the coat closer, watched as Lalli sat up as well. Mikkel handed the two of them a bowl and gestured for them to eat. Emil wrapped his hands around the bowl, tried to heat up.

"It will do more good in your stomach."

Emil nodded, drank some of the soup, looked at Lalli. Lalli was staring into the bowl, didn't move and Emil nudged him gently.

"Please eat some of it, for me."

Lalli looked at him, then slowly raised the bowl to his lips and took a couple of sips. Mikkel sat down infront of Emil and removed the blanket. Emil's stomach twisted when he saw the bloody bandages covering his leg.

"You must have done a _really_ terrible job with the stitches this time", Sigrun smiled.

"In my defence I was doing the work of three people at the same time. At least he is still alive."

Emil put the bowl down and buried his face in his hands.

"How bad was it?"

"There is no need to think about that now", Mikkel answered as he started unwrapping Emil's leg. "You need to focus on getting your core temperature up. I did what I could, but I lacked vital equipment. However, since you are awake now you should be alright soon."

A wet cloth was placed against Emil's leg as Mikkel started cleaning the area around the wound. Emil peeked between his fingers, didn't want to see it, but was still curious about it. The wound went almost all the way along his calf, the edges looked ripped and there was still pieces of metal dug into the flesh. Mikkel also noticed it and started pulling them out, making new trails of blood running over Emil's leg. Emil's face got paler and Lalli placed a hand on Emil's shoulder. Mikkel made a new attempt at stitching Emil's leg up, then wrapped it in bandages again.

"That is all I can do for now", he said and wrapped the blanket around Emil's legs again. "We will leave in an hour, make sure you rest up before then. You too, Sigrun."

Sigrun rolled her eyes and walked away from the tent again. Emil nodded and grabbed his bowl again. Lalli was already getting up and putting his clothes on. He waved at Emil and then disappeared. Mikkel placed a hand on Emil's shoulder, smiled towards him.

"It will get better, don't worry. Your leg will heal."

"Otherwise you're able to amputate, I know."

"It won't come to that."

Emil was quiet, looked into his bowl. Mikkel moved to the opening, got out of the tent and Emil finished his food, laid down to rest some more. Lalli returned after an hour and Emil freed himself from the blanket, started getting dressed. He managed to get to his feet, but when he put weight on his injured leg pain shut up from it, it felt like it was about to tear even worse and then Lalli caught him, allowed him to take weight off it. He took some shaky breaths.

"Mikkel..."

Mikkel peeked inside, noticed Emil clinging to Lalli.

"I... think there's a problem with your plan."

"Nonsense", Mikkel said and gestured for them to come outside.

Emil and Lalli exchanged glances before following him outside, moving carefully so Emil wouldn't risk further injury to his leg. Mikkel held to sturdy Y-shaped sticks towards Emil when they got out of the tent and Emil raised an eyebrow.

"Have you ever used crutches before?" Mikkel asked as he handed the sticks to Emil and showed him how to position them.

Emil shook his head, tried not to fall over as Mikkel made him take a step.

"They are not perfect, but should be enough until we get to the ship. We will walk slowly and take short breaks often until you've gotten used to it."

Emil nodded, took a tighter grip of the improvised crutches. His gloved hands slipped slightly on them, but he felt stable leaning against them. Sigrun came up to them, glared at them.

"Alright people!" she shouted. "No more dilly-dallying, we're heading out _now_!"

Everyone nodded, grabbed their stuff and then they were off.


End file.
